Back to Basics – Using MasterType Directive
Back to Basics – Using MasterType Directive
This post is 
a result of
a question that
I got from one
of the developers
that I work with.
The question was
how to use master page properties from an ASP.NET page.
Setting the Environment
The first thing that you want to do is to expose the properties
as public in the master page. For example this is code behind
of a simple master page that exposes the IsPageEnabled property:
public partial class Site1 : MasterPage
{
#region Properties
public bool IsPageEnabled { get; set; }
#endregion
#region Page events
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
#endregion
}
The MasterType Directive
When we want to use the property in a page which reference the
previous master page we need to put the inside of it the MasterType
directive:
<%@ MasterType VirtualPath="~/Site1.Master" %>
This directive declare that the master page of a page is strongly type.
By that simple directive we gain access to the master exposed public
properties and methods through the Master property of the page.
For example this is how in the page I’ll call the IsPageEnabled property of
the master page:
public partial class WebForm5 : Page
{
#region Page Events
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Master.IsPageEnabled = true;
}
#endregion
}
The markup of the page I use:
<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site1.Master" AutoEventWireup="true"
CodeBehind="WebForm5.aspx.cs" Inherits="TestModalDialog.WebForm5" %>
<%@ MasterType VirtualPath="~/Site1.Master" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
</asp:Content>
Summary
Lets sum up, when we use master pages we can expose properties
and methods for the pages. We use the MasterType directive in the
page in order to create a strong type master page inside of it. By
doing that we can pass data from the page to its master.
Very easy and very useful.